Sinn Fein to launch All-Ireland election protest

Sinn Fein is to stage protests across Northern Ireland and the Republic against the postponement of the Stormont Assembly Elections, the party announced today.

As Northern Ireland’s politicians prepared to seek compensation for the cancellation of the May 29 poll, Sinn Fein announced plans for pickets in 30 cities and towns on both sides of the border.

Confirming two large scale rallies are planned on the day the vote should have been held outside Belfast City Hall and the British Embassy in Dublin, Mid Ulster MP Martin McGuinness said: “The cancelling of the elections is wrong.

“It is undemocratic. It is disenfranchising the people of the six counties.

“And it was taken against the wishes of those representing the majority of the electorate in the North and the Irish Government.”

Sinn Fein Assembly candidates will hand in letters of protest on May 29 to electoral offices in Belfast, Derry, Ballymoney, Banbridge, Omagh and Glengormley.

City centre protests have also been planned for Belfast, Omagh, Enniskillen, Lurgan and Londonderry, with white line pickets in Belfast, Toomebridge, Strabane, Downpatrick, the Craigavon Bridge in Derry, Lurgan, Clough and Ballygawley.

South of the border, members of Sinn Fein’s youth wing will mount the protests on Sunday by lobbying the monthly meeting of Donegal County Council.

Former Sinn Fein Assembly members will stage their own picket at the Dáil on May 28.

A protest flotilla will sail down the River Liffey in Dublin on May 29, with white line pickets taking place on major thoroughfares throughout the city.

There will also be protests in Cork city and county, Galway city and county, Ballina, Westport, Sligo, Letterkenny, Drogheda, Dundalk, Kilkenny city, Carlow, Naas, Mullingar, Wexford, Enniscorthy, Waterford, Tralee and Bray.

Mr McGuinness called on Sinn Fein supporters to turn out in support of the right to vote.

He alleged the British government shelved the elections because it felt the outcome would not “suit their gameplan”.

The former Stormont Education Minister said: “It is time for people to reclaim our democratic rights. It is time for people to reclaim the peace process."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair postponed the election four days into the campaign because he believed it would be impossible to restore power sharing afterwards.

Mr Blair insisted if David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists were to share power with Sinn Fein, there would have to be a clear assurance from the IRA that all paramilitary activity would end for good.

Several party political broadcasts were aired in the province before the British government postponed the poll.